Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,[……] these rebel powers that thee array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge?
Is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more. So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And,
Death once dead, there's no more dying then.
Form: sonnet: ababcdcdefefgg1. sinful earth: i.e., body. 2.
The Quarto reading of this line, "My sinfull earth these rebell powres that thee array,'' is evidently corrupt, the compositor probably being responsible for the repetition of "My sinfull earth." The original is irrecoverable.
Conjectural readings include "Thrall to'' (by analogy with Lucrece, 722-28), "Fool'd by," ''Lord of,'' "Press'd by," "Why feed'st.'' The meaning of the phrase is: the rebellious bodily passions that are the garment of the soul. 8. thy charge: i.e., the body. 9. loss: i.e., privation. 10. aggravate: increase. 11. terms divine: long periods of divine salvation.
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